NHS timing targets scrapped
Friday 17th December 2010
The government has announced it is to scrap NHS accident and emergency and non-life-threatening ambulance response times.
Health secretary Andrew Lansley announced that from April 2011 the four-hour accident and emergency waiting time will be replaced with eight new clinical quality indicators which he claims will promote quality and patient safety.
The emphasis will be taken away from time targets, with factors such as unplanned re-attendance and time to full initial assessment used to judge quality of patient care.
"By putting patient safety and outcomes at the heart of the health service, A and E departments and ambulance trusts can demonstrate they provide safe and effective clinical care in a timely manner rather than meeting a specific target. This is not about hitting targets – importantly, it is about giving the NHS more freedom to deliver quality care," he said.
The new indicators were developed by Professor Matthew Cooke, the national clinical director for emergency care, along with senior clinicians in the College of Emergency Medicine and the Royal College of Nursing.
This comes after surgeons said a quicker turn-around is needed to reduce the amount of time patients have to wait for surgery, according to a report published by the NHS Confederation.
Written by Martin Lambert
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